The Umbrella
by Amarthame
Summary: The wash of rain skirted along the leaves high up in the park before coming to rest around the slight, irritated haven afforded by Dib’s umbrella. Rainy walks to skool with Zim were always like this. ZADR.


**Seri****es: **Invader Zim

**Pairing(s): **ZADR (aka Zim/Dib)

**Summary:** The wash of rain skirted along the leaves high up in the park before coming to rest around the slight, irritated haven afforded by Dib's umbrella. Rainy walks to skool with Zim were always like this.

**Disclaimer: **Invader Zim and all related characters, etc. are the property of Nickelodeon and the brain-child of Jhonen Vasquez.

**Other Notes:** Have I ever mentioned that I hate the fandom clichés? No? Well, I do. I hate the clichés this fandom is absolutely drenched in. Every single one, purely on principle. xD Except for this one! Zim and Dib sharing an umbrella is just too cute for me to not absolutely love it. Of course, I totally can't write cute things, so instead you get this.

Oh, and happy birthday to me! =D In all honesty, I probably would have held off on putting this up for maybe another month while I finished other things, but today's my birthday, so I said to myself "Screw it, it's as good as it's gonna get, I'm releasing it out into the wild." So I did. xD

As always, reviews are 9579.99986% welcome! All sorts of reviews, from the one-word compliments to the lengthy explanations of how this sucks and why. Let's hear 'em! =D

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The wash of rain fell in light, sweeping sounds made of individual pitter-patters skirting along the leaves of the sparse trees of the park and finally coming to rest in individual plinks along the path. The air was full of the rich smell of dank, heavy clouds as it mixed with the polluted, smoky smell the city held even out in the park. The moisture in the air was enough to dampen anything it touched without needing to entice it to expose itself to the actual rain. A heavy, forlorn feeling rested about the air and the clouds and the rain, an uncomfortable sensation enough to make anyone's skin crawl, and nobody in the city enjoyed the way it clamped down on them. Especially after the third day of it.

"You should really get your own umbrella," Dib chided at Zim as he watched with a fading fond glimmer in his almost-amused expression as the Irken tried his best not to look frightened as he stood as close to Dib as physically possible without knocking him over. They walked side-by-side, on their way to Hi Skool.

"Why would I do that?" Zim demanded somewhat distractedly, shooting a faintly frustrated glance at Dib before going back to his routine of glancing around at the poisonous water droplets around him nervously. For such a worthless, defenseless planet, Earth's strange weather patterns were intimidating.

"So that you don't have to share mine," Dib pointed out with a twinge of annoyance. It was an old umbrella that he had used back when he had been a kid; it was barely big enough for just one person of Dib's size. Even if Zim was about a head shorter than Dib, the umbrella had to strain to cover them both.

Zim just returned a noncommittal "Eh" to Dib's comment.

Dib rolled his eyes. "Didn't you bathe in paste this morning? You sure smell like it."

Zim glared at Dib briefly. "What of it?"

"If you did, then you don't really need an umbrella, right?"

"Just because I did doesn't mean I want to get soaking wet with your Earth poisons," Zim shot back spitefully, misusing his artificially enhanced eyesight to glare at one individual drop of rain as it fell to the path before him.

Dib nodded once, slowly, realizing through the all-encompassing sound of rain that he should've thought of that much. "I guess..."

They walked in silence for a long moment, Zim gradually pushing Dib further and further to the far left side of the park's path as he kept bumping up against him at Dib's right. It was a little endearing, sure, but it wasn't particularly comfortable, especially since Zim was taking up most of the umbrella as is.

"Why do you even keep going to skool anyway?" Dib wondered aloud, "It's not like there's anything important they can teach you, anyway." The things Dib remembered Zim had told him about Irken advances in math and the sciences were so complex they made his head spin. He always found it remarkable that somebody like Zim could understand something so complicated... Though it made sense in the long run, he supposed, thinking back to the complexity of Zim's inventions—those that had actually worked, that is.

"Why wouldn't I?" Zim inquired. In truth, he considered the same question every single day while he glared hatefully at the homework assigned to him (but which he had his computer do for him, anyway). But in the end, the answer was always the same: Why would he bother staying at home if Dib was gonna be at skool all day?

Dib sshrugged, then forced a mild smirk and asked, more to keep conversation going than anything else, "Well, why _would_ you?"

Zim just rolled his eyes and gave Dib a playful elbow in the ribs, careful to not actually hurt the human with his artificially enhanced strength. "Shut your noise tube, Dib-human."

Dib rolled his eyes right back and about half a minute passed in relative silence as they left the park and the canopy the trees it provided. The suddenly increased frequency of rain zipping past them made Zim even more adamant in his claim to more than his fair share of the umbrella.

Dib frowned at that. "Hey, move over, I'm getting wet."

"You dare push Zim out into the rain?" Zim demanded with moderate irritation directed at the weather but finding an outlet in Dib.

"You already pushed me out, you jerk!"

Zim scowled lightly at that comment, but didn't move over, instead grumbling, "This umbrella is tiny."

"It's _always_ been tiny."

"The get a bigger one!"

"Why don't you just get your own?!"

"Why should I?!"

They bickered that way all the way to the Hi Skool building, then shook off their mutual annoyance as easily as Dib shook water droplets off of his umbrella. They had, for the most part, automatically forgiven each other, but just like the stubborn moisture left on an umbrella after you shake it, they held droplets of irritation throughout most of first period before joking it off at Zim's locker just before their second class.

But walking home from skool later that day, they both noted sourly that it was still raining, and by the time they got to Zim's house, the comfortable air and mutual civility about them had dissolved into another bout of tasteless bickering. Just as it always had and would, under their umbrella. And Dib would always stand on Zim's doorstep and complain about how Zim needed to get his own umbrella, and then he'd walk away grumbling about how much time he had wasted in escorting Zim like he had. And Zim would hold the door open and yell after Dib, telling him to get a new umbrella already, and then he'd slam the door shut and stand at the window watching Dib steal a glance back at Zim's base and watching the rain hitting the ground behind Dib. And then, maybe right then, maybe later, they'd both say or think something about how much they hated the rain.

And both would resolve that next time it rained, they'd find a way around walking to school together under Dib's old umbrella.

The next day, it rained again.

"Hey, Zim," Dib greeted lightly as he appeared on the alien's doorstep.

"You're late," Zim noted lightly as he finished opening the door. He always had the door open just in time for Dib's arrival; he made sure of it. No, he didn't do anything like watch at the window for Dib to arrive, that would just be ridiculous! He merely had his computer inform him of Dib's arrival in time for him to get to the house level, that was all.

Dib rolled his eyes. "No I'm not. And what's with this weather lately, anyway? I don't remember the last time it rained like this."

"Your planet simply enjoys tormenting Zim," the alien grumbled darkly at the sky as they started on their way.

"Torment? And here I thought you liked walking with me to skool!" Dib teased, smirking down at Zim.

"Don't flatter yourself, Dib-beast." Zim smirked and gave Dib a playful jab in the ribs.

Dib chuckled. "Watch it, Space Boy, if you injure me, you don't get to use my umbrella."

"I wasn't aware you were so easily injured, Earth-filth!"

The rain washed everything with its dreary disposition and nothing in the city escaped the way it cleansed them of every drop of cheer and comfort. The scent in the air dripped of rain falling and of rain to come and of rain that would pool in the streets long after the rain had ended. The moisture in the air made human skin crawl and animal fur damp and Zim's skin sting, and it stuck to the air like a glove, dulling the senses and making the entire world feel sluggish and slow. Nobody liked the rain, especially now, in its fourth day.

"Filth, am I? You're the one that smells like glue," Dib noted jokingly.

"So what? At least I don't smell like human," Zim proclaimed with a grin.

Dib laughed at that. "Then you better stop hanging around me so much, or my horrible human stench might just rub off onto you."

"You'll not get rid of Zim that easily, human Dib." Zim smirked mockingly.

And despite that, and despite the slow encroaching of the rain's dank poison into everyone's heart to turn everyone's mood sour, Zim and Dib could still walk side by side and keep their light banter up between them for about half their path to skool before the rain finally got to them. But before the slight space beneath their umbrella became the bane of civility, much less affection, that same slight space only served to bring them just that much closer every rainy morning.

Deep within themselves, they probably recognized that that was exactly why neither of them ever went out and got a new umbrella.


End file.
